Very, very, very good info posted in this thread here. I wanted to let all of you planning to come up to read through the other few most recent threads in this forum. You may need to expand the view to threads within the last couple of months--I'm not sure when the last activity in them was, but the one about the 10-day trip and another one about Princess lodges in Alaska have a lot of discussion (some courtesy of yours truly) about potential itineraries. I can't spend 6 hours putting together info for this thread (as I seemed to do on the others) as it's finals week and I really should be writing an English paper, but I can't resist the siren call of FT...

A couple of points I wanted to make:

1) Good seafood in Anchorage (I can't really speak to restaurants on the Peninsula as I don't make it down there often): Simon and Seafort's has my favorite meal of all time: Parmesan and asiago-crusted halibut with buttered asparagus. Skip the Phyllis' Salmon Bake across from the 5th Avenue Mall (touristy and most of the people I know say it's not great fish--never been there myself, though). The White Spot Cafe has great halibut sandwiches, and Southside Bistro has great fish, too. There's a more comprehensive posting regarding my restaurant recommendations in Anchorage over on the Kayak.com forums.

I can't speak to the salmon sashimi or sushi, though--I'm not a huge sushi fan. In fact, I'm not a huge salmon fan (although I'll eat it willingly if it's good); I MUCH prefer the far sweeter flavor of halibut. DO NOT MISS eating fresh halibut while you're here!

2) Most of the questions about where to stay near Denali have been addressed (personally, I've only stayed at the Denali Princess, so I can't add much to the discussion), but I did want to address someone's question about how far the McKinley Princess is from the park entrance. The McKinley Princess is on a bluff a bit north of Talkeetna, so you'd need to plan your schedule to accommodate a roughly two-hour drive up to the park entrance itself. It's got a great view of the mountain (in clear weather). Actually, if you stay in the park resort area itself, you won't be able to see the mountain at all, since you're in the middle of the Alaska Range, so if you want a room with a view, this might be better, but again, it's still a ways from the park activities.

3) SRQ Guy said he got a car for $200 for a week. Don't be surprised if you find rates FAR higher than that--right now, I'm seeing $350 per week base/$500 after taxes for a COMPACT car for July. SRQ Guy must have been traveling in the shoulder season (May or September) or just simply stumbled across a rate that was most likely a glitch in the computer system. To everyone coming: book soon as cars actually do sell out up here in the summer (I know; I worked in the industry and sort of still do). (Most reservations can be cancelled and rebooked if you do find a cheaper rate, so don't hesitate to click "Reserve.")

4) If you CAN squeeze in an Alaska Railroad trip, I highly recommend it. I've done both ANC-FAI and ANC-Seward with family and they've all enjoyed it immensely. Seward works well as a day trip as the train arrives in Seward at around noon and leaves at around 6pm, and some of the half-day cruises are timed to fit with the train schedule. However, as has already been mentioned, the full-day cruises are worth the extra time, but that puts a cramp in the train schedule. (Disclaimer: I work for the railroad, but I still heartily recommend it...) I've also heard (as has already been mentioned) that cruises out of Whittier see more glaciers (especially the 26 Glacier Cruise) while Seward cruises see more wildlife. Take your pick, though you'll see a lot of both either way. Hint: if you do the Valdez-Whittier ferry run, you do pass Columbia Glacier (huge--the size of Los Angeles) on the way over, so you can kill two birds with one stone (not eagles, please) that way, though the actual glacier cruises do see a lot more.

5) What is an elk? Three people mentioned seeing elk up here. I know that Brits call our moose "elk," but for heaven's sake, don't ask any locals where the elk are--they'll have no clue what you're talking about...

Again, I recommend combing through the other threads in the Alaska forum here. We've devoted lots of time to discussing hotels around Denali, the merits of stopping in Fairbanks and what to do in Seward. Oh, and DEFINITELY do get a Milepost--best place I've seen online is Amazon.com ($17, I think). You can get them for $12 at Costco here in Anchorage, but you really should get it now and read about the roads you're going to travel on. When you do get to Anchorage, you might want to look at one of the DeLorme Alaska Atlas & Gazetteers (also available at Costco) for extremely detailed topo maps of the entire state. Ask for one of the Alaska Channel guidebooks free at many places around town (I know at least three rental agencies stock them at the airport counters, too)--they're some of the best guidebooks I've seen about the state (different from the Milepost, which has heavy advertising and no real opinions or reviews and is simply a guide to what you'll run into as you travel each road). Of course, Lonely Planet and Let's Go do a good job, too, but they may be aimed at a slightly different crowd.


OK, OK, enough out of me--I'm already going to have to forgo a full night's sleep for this paper...